Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
by hydroxyzine
Summary: They lost. Everything. Their golden boy, their hero, their hope. Hermione adapts. In order to play the game you have to know the rules. VERY Dark Dramione. Torture, rape, and psychological trauma. (no update schedule as of now)
1. I

" _The boy … is he dead?"_

 _There was complete silence in the clearing. Nobody approached Harry, but he felt their concentrated gaze; it seemed to press him harder to into the ground, and he was terrified a finger or an eyelid might twitch._

" _You," said Voldemort, and there was a bang and a small shriek of pain. "Examine him. Tell me whether he is dead."_

 _Harry did not know who had been sent to verify. He could only lie there, with his heart thumping traitorously, and wait to be examined, but at the same time noting, small comfort though it was, that Voldemort was wary of approaching him, that Voldemort suspected that all had not gone to plan. . . ._

 _Hands, softer than he had been expecting, touched Harry's face, pulled back an eyelid, crept beneath his shirt, down to his chest, and felt his heart. He could hear the woman's fast breathing, her long hair tickled his face. He knew that she could feel the steady pounding of life against his ribs._

" _Is Draco alive? Is he in the castle?"_

 _The whisper was barely audible; her lips were an inch from his ear, her head bent so low that her long hair shielded his face from the onlookers._

"I don't know," He breathed, "what happened after the Fiendfyre-"

Her hand retracted suddenly, nails scratching across his collarbone. He felt her stand up, "Alive, my lord."

"Avada Kedavra."

* * *

Someone screamed. Giant tears rolled down Hagrid's cheeks as he gingerly set Harry Potter's lifeless body at Voldemort's feet.

Ginny fought past her mother to reach the edge of the crowd. "NO! No, Harry!"

Ron dropped his wand in shock, next to him Hermione sunk to her knees. "No, Harry. Why did you have to play the hero?"

Draco Malfoy's platinum hair stuck out like a sore thumb, and his mother spotted him almost instantly. "Oh, Draco." Narcissa opened her arms, and Draco ran across the clearing into her embrace. Her eyes watched Voldemort stride forward and place a filth-covered foot onto Harry's face. It lolled to the side with a sickening boneless flop.

The Dark Lord spread his arms wide, his smile too twisted to be as charming as he intended. "Kill the elders." Green light flashed violently across the courtyard and all the members of the Order of the Phoenix that had survived the first war dropped like stones. Screams erupted from the younger students, and Voldemort laughed low in his throat.

His next words drifted past Hermione's ears. She had more important things to consider. Ron was shaking next to her, his horrified gaze locked onto the corpse of his mother. Hermione, however, was focusing on the scared remnants of the Order. She knew that the next few minutes would decide their fates. Neville was clutching his wand with white knuckles, glaring across the courtyard at Bellatrix Lestrange. Luna had a steady hand on Ginny's shoulder, who was crying silently with tears working their way down her cheeks. There were countless other Hogwarts students who were on the verge of panic, and Hermione gritted her teeth. She had to get them out alive.

She felt Ron shift, and looked back at the Death Eaters in time to make out the shout leaving the Dark Lord's lips.

"Grab them!"

Hermione pushed all of her grief and panic and fear out of her and produced a blinding shield that bubbled out around her allies. "Get them out!" She roared, her wand arm shaking with the force of her spell.

Ron responded immediately, snatching up his wand from the ground before wrenching Ginny away from Luna. He began shouting orders to the children behind him. Luna and Hannah Abbot ran towards Hermione, adding their strength to her shield. Susan Bones and Michael Corner left the mass of escaping students and gave their magic as well.

The initial cast of Hermione's improvised shield had emitted a shockwave that had knocked the Death Eaters to their feet. Some remained hunched over, clutching their heads as their ears rang. Draco staggered to his feet, his arm reaching out to help up Blaise, who was angrily wiping blood out of his eyes from where his temple had hit the stone. Through the din, Draco could make out the large POPs that signified mass apparitions.

"Shit." Theo's voice appeared over his shoulder and Draco grimaced. It was an understatement at best.

"Get them, NOW!" The Dark Lord was pulsating with rage, his magic sparking and radiating outward of his hands.

The Death Eaters surged forward, wands drawn and glowing with the anticipation of spells. Draco approached more cautiously, and was grateful for his instincts when the first two lackeys to hit the shield evaporated into a mist of red. His eyebrows shot up to his hair and the others around him abruptly stopped, wary.

"That's a dark spell." Blaise growled, wiping blood out of his eyes again, although this time it wasn't his. "Since when do little mudblood's dabble in black magic?"

Draco peered through the shimmering magic of the shield and focused on Hermione's face. A smear of blood streaked across her cheek and her lips had curled up into a ferocious snarl. As he watched, she turned and shouted something at one of her friends behind her. They nodded back at her, grabbed a couple of panicked fourth years, and disapparated.

Draco felt the magic of the spell before he heard it and ducked as a burning ball of black flames soared overhead. It hit Hermione's shield with a boom, and began to seep across the barrier like poison. Hermione released the spell and stepped back, her wand still held high. As her magic faded away and the Death Eater's pressed forward, Draco could hear Ron shouting over the clamor.

"Get out of here, Mione! Grab Luna and go!" The ginger was passing what looked like a third year to Dean Thomas before charging up to his sister. A jet of green shot past Hermione's face and she whirled back to face the oncoming crowd with an incoherent roar. Luna appeared next to Ron, covered in grime and soot, and grabbed his arm.

"Good luck, Hermione." Her serene voice carried eerily over the sounds of war. Ron tried to twist away but Luna tightened her grip on him and Ginny, and spun away.

Hermione stood in the midst of blood and bodies. Missed curses sailed over her as she stared past the Death Eaters at Voldemort. Draco looked around at his comrades; they all seemed to be too scared to actually hit her. The Dark Lord would want her alive.

Her wand came up so fast that Mulciber did not even stand a chance. A purple light slashed through his chest and he fell, writhing to the ground. She step sided a beam of red and returned a Sectumsempra with such fury that Cassius Warrington was sliced in half.

"Holy fuck." Theo dived down to the ground as a wicked curse hissed past them. "Fucking Gryffindor, making a last stand."

"We need her alive," Draco shouted hoarsely back, "she'll know where the others went."

"So go get her then, you fuck!" Theo spat out some dirt as he got back to his feet.

Draco gripped his wand and ran forward, dodging a surge of flame spouting from the angry witch. He tripped over something that squished and let out a grating yell when he looked down and saw Warrington's intestines.

Draco could never remember how he made it past Hermione's barrage of curses but suddenly he was there and he was close enough to see how her pupils were blown with fear and the blood caked in her hair. Another step and his hand was locked on her wrist. He heard his mother scream and then he was lost in a suffocating tube of the absence of space.

* * *

A/N

New Story.

I have no idea for an update schedule.

The first section in italics is taken directly from The Deathly Hallows, creds to JK Rowling. Not my words.

Lets see where this goes shall we?

(come find me on tumblr hydroxyzinebby)


	2. II

They appeared in a forest in a whirl of anger and harsh expletives. Draco stumbled and dropped his wand when a sharp jab to his spleen came out of nowhere. Hermione staggered away from him, clutching at her side where it looked like she had been carved at by someone blind. Draco stood up and took a step forward, only to fall to his knees and retch when Hermione turned away from him and he got a full view of what her ribcage looked like. The jagged wound wept blood, the red blooming down her jeans, staining her socks and shoes and leaves underfoot.

"Granger-" Draco rolled to his right to avoid the swing of her foot as she kicked out at his face. "Stop it, you stupid bint, you've been splinched!" She snarled at him and kicked again. He grabbed her ankle and pulled and she fell next to him.

"Let go!" She writhed as he pulled himself up on top of her to try and pin her.

"I swear to the founders, Granger, stop fucking moving!" Her knee connected to his groin and he grunted in pain. One hand clasped her throat, pinning her to the forest floor, the other frantically patting the ground to find his wand as his eyes watered from pain.

Hermione spat up into his face as his fingers curled around his blackthorn wand. "Agh, fuck." Draco brought his wand up and jabbed the tip into her temple. "Behave, Granger."

"Fuck you." Her wand jabbed in between his ribs.

Draco faltered ever so slightly and it was enough for her to hook her leg around his hip and flip them over. She scrambled away from him and mumbled a spell that was unintelligible and thick roots shot out of the ground and began winding their way across his body. "Granger- ack", he coughed as she swung her foot into his side.

"Oh, Draco." Hermione hummed something tuneless and hollow, fingers gently exploring the wound on her side as she backed away from him. "Did you really think I was going to come quietly? Not my style, really." Her hand came away crimson and she tutted at it.

Draco watched her pull a small beaded bag out of her sock, his mouth hanging slightly open, as Hermione upended the contents in search of medical potions. He tested the bindings around his limbs, and choked when they cinched tighter. "I wouldn't struggle if I were you." Hermione had found her supply of dittany, and was dabbing around and onto her wound. The flesh sizzled and her face scrunched up in pain.

"Granger." Draco wheezed, "please." She spared him a glance, her eyes still feverish from battle.

"Shut up, Malfoy, I'm trying to concentrate." Draco had to look away as her skin began knitting itself together and the shocking white of bone began to disappear under new layers of muscle and skin. A bottle clinked as she went back to her bottomless bag and continued searching. "Quite foolish of you really, to think you could grab hold of me like that." Draco coughed and gasped, trying to avoid the tightening tendrils of vine fastened across his chest. "Hm, no. I had no intention of dying today. So much for a clean exit, though. You bungled that for me rather spectacularly." She downed a bottle of blood replenishing potion, and watched Draco with a level stare. "So, that brings me to my current predicament. What do I do with you?"

Hermione waved her wand almost absentmindedly and her bag began repacking itself with gentle clinks. She leaned back against a tree trunk, still watching Draco, she seemed to be searching for something in his face.

"I can help you, protect you." Draco managed to say, the restraints becoming still tighter.

Hermione stood upright and walked over to where he lay. "Finite." Draco stopped struggling immediately. She straddled him and slowly lowered herself until she was pinning him to the ground, her knees grinding into his shoulders, her weight balanced on his chest. Hermione held her wand fondly, her skeletal fingers caressing the polished wood as she traced the lines of Draco's face with the tip.

He shuddered as residual magic gently sparked against his skin. "Granger." He whispered, staring up into her feral gaze, trying not to lose his head as a monumental panic was starting to seep into his bones, coiling its way up his spine.

" _Legilimens_."

* * *

Draco hadn't been home to Malfoy Manor in three long weeks. There was the urge to avoid the reigning manifestation of terror that was the Dark Lord, but the main reason for his current whereabouts was the progressively frustrating search for Hermione Granger.

The only thing that had been in that forest clearing when Draco had woken seven months ago had been a crumpled ball of parchment on his chest. He'd had a terrible ringing in his ears, and his head felt like he had been scooped at with a blunt spoon. Granger had gotten inside his head and left it in tatters, an inexperienced Legilimens indeed. The parchment was kept safe in a hidden pocket in his favorite cloak, draped now over the back of his chair in the dingy pub somewhere in the northern moors.

Draco knocked back the dregs of his Ogden's finest before pulling out the parchment. Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum. The cramped writing was neat, and had a flourish to it that was distinctly Granger. The parchment itself was worn, the ink fading from Draco's repeated obsession over it. But the trace of magic was still there, and it _pulled_ at him. Whatever Granger had seen in his head had led her to leave a thread for him. And Draco was certain it would lead him to her, as certain as he was that the Dark Lord would punish him dearly for showing up empty handed yet again.

A tankard slid onto his table, a shadow in front of him, "Sulking again, Drake?"

"Theo, if you were half as good at finding Granger as you were at finding me, you might actually be worth something." Draco leaned back in his chair as his friend draped himself into the other.

Theodore Nott was not, as far as Death Eaters go, a bad man. His talents were much more refined to the arts of numbers and books, and the Dark Lord appreciated his efficient research. Theo was constantly supplying their master with new and increasingly inventive methods of chaos.

Theo, however, was Draco's only true remaining friend in the world, and the only one who seemed to be able to track Draco down whenever he wished. A knack that irritated Draco to no end.

"Your mother sends her regards." Theo tapped his fingers against the table, ignoring the jibe.

Draco grimaced, "She never just sends her regards. No howler this time?"

Theo grinned at him, "No, but I'd hoped." He glanced around the pub before sliding a scrap of paper across the table. "Granger isn't in the North anymore, mate. She's been sighted on the continent."

Draco groaned and considered just killing himself to save the Dark Lord the trouble. "And what's this for?" He nodded at the note sitting between them.

"It's a list. Of every place Granger has been sighted in the past few months, and it includes several of my predictions about where she'll be next."

Draco looked up at that. Far from looking smug, as Theo was wont to do when his research paid off, his friend looked faintly concerned. "Bullshit. Her movements have been erratic."

Theo sighed, "According to your weird psycho obsession with her. But if I listen to the sightings made by senior Death Eaters in the field and ones made by sympathizers, there is a definite pattern and it is leading somewhere important."

Draco made an affronted noise and took a gulp of the warm beer from Theo's tankard. "Those are decoys. She's smart enough to play us to where she wants us." He picked up the list and skimmed through it. "Why would she be in wizarding Paris next? That's suicide."

Theo's glare was scathing, "She's not the good little bookworm you idolize anymore. We caught Loony Lovegood in a raid last week and she confirmed Granger's gone around the bend, well as best a confirmation as you can get from her." He grabbed his tankard back from Draco's grip and took a swig. "Apparently the Order has no control over Granger's movements anymore. They just hope she doesn't lead us to a safehouse."

Draco glanced up at Theo. "Lovegood, huh?"

"Shut it." Theo scowled and gulped down more of his beer.

Draco smirked and went back the list. "Theo, if Granger's gone rogue then her movements wouldn't be this purposeful."

"I know." Theo set his empty tankard down with a gentle thump. "But it is not my place to dispute the evidence the Dark Lord wants to see. Granger is _not_ in the North anymore. Do you understand?" With that, Theo made to leave. "Oh, and Luna sends her regards." Then he was gone.

Draco sighed and made to gather up his cloak. He folded the list and tucked it around Granger's note, before securing it in his pocket. He dropped some galleons on the table and left the pub, shielding his face against the rain with a hand. "Shite." Draco felt the familiar pull from within his chest, and clenched his hand around his wand. He spun, and with a sharp crack, the sleepy town was empty again.

* * *

A/N

What a fucking bad author I am, six months and no update. Excuses? Yeah, depression, anxiety, graduation, moving to Australia, no internet. But now let's get back into the swing of things shall we? My writer's block has lifted, and I have a way to access the wonderful realm of computers, so here's to a slew of updates hopefully in the near future. Love from Qld, Aus.

tumblr: hydroxyzinebby

Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum- Therefore whoever desires peace, let him prepare for war. Latin adage from a statement found in Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus' tract _De Re Militari_.


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